The profession of writing is not for everyone. It’s a lot of hard work for very little to no money. Unfortunately we are not all J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyers where their books seem to fly off the book store shelves or they become an overnight success with movie deals. Nope, it’s a lot of hard, stressful work to reach that level of success and to make it as easily as a first time author is very rare.
Yes, there is a reason behind this random thought, I just published my first book. After about twenty years of procrastination, I figured it was about time to put my work out there. After decades, literally, of researching and following the publishing industry I had decided to self-publish. When I mentioned this to a friend, they pointed me in the direction of Dark Moon Press(DMP). I shrugged my shoulders, looked at my husband and said what do I have to loose, if I get rejected I can always self publish like I originally planned.
So off I went to look up and research this publishing company and their submission guidelines. To my surprise and pleasure everything was done electronic, score one for them, I didn’t have to spend tons to print off my manuscript and snail mail it to them. Score two for them was when I continued to read through their submission page and they laid out their royalty fee structure, which is around ten times the amount other publishers offer their authors. At this point I kept thinking this has got to be to good to be true, but nothing ventured nothing gained.
With the help of my husband, I drafted up an email, prepared the first 3 chapters and sent it off at the beginning of November 2017, it would have been around his Grandmothers birthday. I waited on pins and needles for the next month and a half, when finally I heard something back via email, on what would have been his Uncle Mark’s birthday. My book had been accepted for publication. I was in shock to say the least for the next week I was flying on cloud nine.
The publisher immediately added me to their private group strictly for DMP authors to help support each other and learn different marketing techniques from each other. Wow, this was to good to be true, what publisher offers this kind of support and coaching? I loved it and still do.
I worked with Eric (Owner) and another local author, Patricia DeSandro, on cover art and their freelance Editor, Cindi Pettit, to get my book polished. Then everything was off to the publisher for final preparation on their end.
On April 27, 2018 my first book Healing in the Woods, published by H. A. Bryan, was officially released. It was at this point that I realized the work is just beginning. If I want to reach the status of the authors I mentioned above I have to market the heck out of this book.
Nope still have not reached that status, and most of my sales have been to family and friends, but I’m sure that’s how any author starts out. Besides my Grandmother was the oldest of seven siblings, who each had 2 or more children plus their children, grandchildren and friends. I figure, if my family likes my book, they will brag about it to everyone they know. Hey it’s the slow way to start the marketing ball but it was only one of the marketing balls my husband and I had planned. Now came the social media end of things, prompting to our FaceBook friends list consisting of classmates, family, friends and even some well, I’ll just leave it there.
I’m still working like a dog trying to make my book a success but it’s so much easier when I know Eric is working just as hard. If interested, please visit my author site at www.habryan.com and my publisher at www.darkmoonpress.com, to see what else they have to offer.
Keep thinking Creatively folks.
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